Peter Dinklage Will Get Explicit For R-Rated Paramount Comedy

I’m ashamed to say that whenever I aim to think about versatile actors, Peter Dinklage’s name never comes to mind - even though when I think of Peter Dinklage, I always think about what a versatile actor he is. While probably best known for his Emmy award-winning performances on HBO’s Game of Thrones, it’s possible he’ll soon be equally well known for his role as a foul-mouthed leprechaun. He has just signed up to do just that in an untitled Paramount comedy project, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and it will definitely be going for that hard R rating.

The project comes from an original idea by Andrew Dodge, whose only other produced screenplay is the Jason Bateman-starring Bad Words. That film hasn’t hit theaters yet and is actually still waiting for a release date, but it saw some critical acclaim at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, and Focus Features paid $7 million for distribution rights, which speaks to its appeal. The whole “dirty language plus interesting plot” element that Bad Words has going for it is the same kind of tone the producers want this project to have. THR says that it's an irreverently sweet storyline, but is also reminiscent of Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa - another film that sounded iffy until it came out and turned out to be pretty good.

There are not a lot of details about the project available just yet, as the script is still being written. The trade says that the film will use Dinklage’s size as a jumping off point, and that he will star as a man who tells people he is a legitimate leprechaun. Is he lying about it or is he delusional? No clue. I can think of a dozen different ways that idea can be done right, and even more ways it could be done wrong. I just hope the final product doesn’t involve 90 minutes of a terrible Irish accent. Otherwise, I’m game for whatever.

Dinklage, who first blew everyone’s minds in 2003's The Station Agent and then made audiences severely uncomfortable on Nip/Tuck, is as busy as ever, appearing in the indie dramedy A Case of You, which is coming out in November. His most high-profile upcoming role is his part as Bolivar Trask in Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past, but he’ll also star in Mark Palansky’s memory-recording drama Rememory, Phil Alden Robinson’s comedy drama The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, and the Joe Albany biopic Low Down, all of which sound just as interesting as another X-Men sequel, if not more so.

Dinklage's most interesting upcoming project of all, however, is Joe Lynch’s long-delayed LARPing comedy adventure Knights of Badassdom, which still doesn’t have a proper release date. Check out the trailer below, which features Dinklage preparing to kick some demon ass.